A group of Russian embassy employees, detained in Kiev under a completely dubious pretext, have been declared missing by the embassy, after the Russian Foreign Ministry’s call for their immediate release was ignored by Ukrainian authorities.

Two Russian diplomats –
3rd Secretary of the Embassy Andrey Golovanov and attaché Mikhail
Shorin – were detained by Kiev police earlier this week, despite
carrying diplomatic passports. While the Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry admitted their detention, the Interior Ministry later
denied the incident.

“In connection with such contradictory reports from Ukrainian
authorities, the Russian Embassy in Ukraine is forced to
officially declare the disappearance of [Golovanov and Shorin] of
the territory of Ukraine,” Russia’s embassy said in a
statement on Friday, as cited by Ria Novosti.

Two men who were detained near a café in Kiev were carrying
“hand grenades” and had documents “resembling”
Russian diplomatic passports, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed
in an official note on August 27.

The pretext for their detention is clearly fabricated, the
Russian FM said in response, demanding the immediate release of
the diplomatic staff.

“Despite showing their diplomatic passports, they were
detained under a completely false pretext,” the statement
said.

“We demand the immediate release of the embassy staff members
and prevention of any future violations of international
conventions on diplomatic immunity,” the ministry added.